ul--over his face which he was ashamed to show
when he thought of his folly and wickedness. Many a time have I felt
his hot tears of contrition as he pressed me against his sunken
cheeks, and to his parched lips.

After her husband's death, the vicar of the parish came to see
Alice, and did all he could to comfort and aid her.

She found that her husband had died largely in debt; that, when all
the stock in his shop was sold, and the creditors paid, there would
be nothing left for herself and two children.

She did not want to go back to her old father's house, and burden
him with care and expense, and she resolved to open a little school
for small children in the cottage in which she lived.

She had one spare room which she could let to an old lady who wanted
just such a home as Alice could give her.

With a strong and hopeful heart, did Alice dedicate herself to the
work before her, of supporting and educating her two orphan
children. Alice's strict honesty had made her give up to her
husband's creditors every thing she had, except the barest
necessaries; and, now that she wanted to commence her school, she
felt very much the want of a little cash to buy a few indispensable
things.

The grocer and butcher had offered to supply her on credit, till her
first payment from her scholars and boarder should come in. Still a
little ready money was essential to her to begin. She would not
borrow it, and was one day thinking what she should do, when her
eye, wandering over a newspaper which the vicar had kindly lent her,
fell on an advertisement offering a high price for handsome hair
long and thick enough to make wigs.

Alice heard the good curate say that he was going to London on
business in a day or two, and her determination was made in a
moment.

I said that Alice had kept nothing that she could do without; she
had, however, kept the white muslin gown she wore when she was
married. She thought she could not give this up. "I shall never wear
a white muslin gown again," she said, as she ripped out one of the
breadths and made herself two or three plain caps of it.

The next day she rose early before the children were awake, and,
standing before a very small looking glass which she had kept to
dress her hair, she looked at me curling all over her precious head,
and hanging down upon her shoulders.

"He loved these locks," said she, "and, for his sake, I would keep
them; but they had better be devoted to the goo